In commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 669,666, filed 23 Mar. 1976,, there has been disclosed a tire mold with a generally toroidal core divided into segments which can be retracted radially inwardly to facilitate the separation of the core from the molded tire. The mold cavity is completed by a pair of half-shells whose separation in an axial direction enables the inward withdrawal of the core segments.
With the aid of suitable annular inserts, such a mold could be used in forming a composite tire body of the aforementioned radial type by producing successive layers in the same mold cavity whose effective width is progressively expanded through the removal of certain inserts between consecutive molding operations. This procedure, however, is cumbersome and time-consuming.